The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) officially started on September 10, 2024, and will run until September 28th. As with other UNGAs before it, leaders from around the world will descend in New York City where high level meetings will be held. This is an opportunity for ministers, presidents, and leaders of major international organizations to discuss the future. This year, the event even includes a “Summit of the Future,” which will focus on enhancing global cooperation to address critical long-term challenges such as climate change, global conflict, and inequality.
Considering the sheer number of high level executives and diplomats at UNGA, it has become a strategic move for many smaller upstart organizations to attend in the hopes of establishing partnerships, inking new deals, or developing new relationships with much larger organizations. For many people however, attending UNGA can be overwhelming. There are so many people to see, events to attend, and agendas to promote (and protest). As I’ve reflected on this unique opportunity for startups and smaller organizations attending UNGA, I suggest taking an approach anchored in disruptive innovation theory to the event.
What is Disruptive Innovation
The theory of disruptive innovation, introduced in 1995 by the late Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, describes a process by which “a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses. Specifically, as incumbents focus on improving their products and services for their most demanding (and usually most profitable) customers, they exceed the needs of some segments and ignore the needs of others.” In effect, once companies are formed, they get on an upmarket trajectory to serve more and more customers with better and better products for higher profits. This natural trajectory they’re on causes them to miss opportunities that happen down market.
Disruptive innovations have three main factors: an enabling technology, a coherent value network, and a new business model. For example, consider the Sony transistor radio. The product leveraged a new technology that was vastly different from the large and expensive vacuum-tube based radios at the time. In addition, makers of the product created a new value network as they chose to sell it at electronics and department stores instead of the typical appliance stores and furniture showrooms at the time. Finally, they developed a new business model by profitably serving a new and underserved market–teenagers who could not afford typical radios at the time.
This approach propelled Sony to become a global giant in the consumer electronics space. Today, the company generates more than $81 billion in annual sales, employs approximately 113,000 people and is worth nearly $113 billion.
The value of a good theory is in its applicability to different sectors and circumstances. How might a small organization adopt the theory of disruption to ensure they have a successful UNGA experience? Small companies attending UNGA should take note of the following: the up-market trajectory of most people; the importance of a new value network; and the paradoxical power of focusing on the underserved.
The upmarket trajectory
Just like companies, people have an upmarket trajectory. They want promotions, raises, and an increasing sense of importance in their work. If small companies can position their work to help the stakeholders, with whom they want to partner, move upmarket, they are more likely to succeed in getting meetings and developing strong partnerships.
New value network
A value network is the collection of upstream suppliers, downstream channels to market, and ancillary providers that support a shared business model within an industry. “Within a value network, each firm’s competitive strategy, and particularly its past choices of markets, determines its perceptions of the economic value of a new technology [or partnership]. These perceptions, in turn, shape the rewards different firms expect to obtain through pursuit of sustaining and disruptive innovations. In established firms, expected rewards, in their turn, drive the allocation of resources toward sustaining innovations and away from disruptive ones,” as described in The Innovator’s Dilemma.
In essence, if Sony had tried to sell its transistor radios into conventional appliance stores, it would have failed. The stores were not incentivized to carry inexpensive Sony products. Similarly, pitching your idea to organizations not incentivized to adopt your innovation won’t help. Instead, identify potential partners for whom your innovation can help them do more of what they’re already doing, but better.
Power of focusing on the underserved
A key lesson from disruptive innovation is the power of focusing on underserved markets. For small organizations attending UNGA, this concept can be a game changer. Large corporations and established players at the event are likely focused on high-profile partnerships and large-scale initiatives, leaving smaller or niche opportunities overlooked. This is where smaller companies can step in.
In conclusion, small organizations attending UNGA 2024 should consider three key strategies: recognize the upmarket trajectory of their potential partners, seek to develop a new value network that aligns with their innovation (or solutions to global development challenges), and harness the power of focusing on underserved markets. By doing so, they can have a more successful experience at this year’s UNGA.
